The Return of the Marvel Masterworks

 

Marvel cancelled the Marvel Masterworks line of reprints with Defenders vol. 10 in 2025 due to declining sales. The line had always had a fitful history, though. In ran from 1987-1993, then went dormant. It was revived in 1997 with pop art style covers by designed by Comicraft, but this version ended in 2002. In 2003, a new trade dress was arrived at (differentiating Atlas era, Golden Age, and regular Marvel) and this version carried through until the end.

Well, Clover Press who I know from their American Comic Strip Library collections have picked up the line, and they are relaunching with a crowdfunding campaign going on now.

These volumes will complete Tomb of Dracula, continue the Simonson run on Thor and the Claremont run on X-men, and start a Super-Villain Team-Up series. In addition to bringing back the two previous cover variants, they are adding a cool Clover Press cover.

Next Level Doom Patrol and Legion

 Last week, I checked out 2 books from DC's "Next Level" initiative (Next Level apparently being where you go once you are All In. I wonder where DC will go next with these marketing phrases?). Both were ok, but I definitely liked one better than the other.

Doom Patrol by writer Darcy Van Poelgeest and artist Niko Henrichon has Vertigo vibes, not in the sense of the specific Doom Patrol iteration that was a Vertigo founder, but more just the feel of Vertigo titles. Honestly, it feels feels even more like the Doom Patrol TV series with its grounded, sort of sadsack weirdos Doom Patrol, the character designs, and the characterization of Negative Man, though it doesn't really borrow any specific character bits or plot elements from that series (so far). The Doom Patrol is broke and have started a low-rent heroes-for-hire business to stay busy and pay bills. A job to find a missing cat immediately gets weird, because of course it would.

I thought this was ok. It was well done, but it felt like things I had seen before in a way that keeps me from being enthusiastic about it.

In Legion of Super-Heroes, Joshua Williamson and Hayden Sherman do a bit more re-imagining. The basic character origins are the same, but the 30th Century is now a time that has outlawed superheroes and Superboy is sort of an underground figure, looked up to by young outsiders who might run afoul of the Persuaders, law enforcement that gets people re-educated. The story starts with RJ Brande having been murdered, and Brainiac 1 of 5 and Tenzil Kem are investigating his murder and what it has to do with super-powered individuals. The new designs are modern but remind me a lot of latter era Moebius and a bit of 80s comic sci-fi (like Garcia-Lopez's designs in Twilight and Star Raiders). Think oversized jackets with stuff on them and knee pads. 

This is definitely the more intriguing premise of the two issues for me. It already seems better than the last Legion reboot.

Mignola's Lands Unknown

I confess that while long being a Hellboy fan, I sort of lost interest in the series with its innumerable spinoffs sometime in the 2010s. Since then, I haven't been paying a lot of attention, so if I saw Bowling with Corpses and Other Strange Tales from Lands Unknown when it came out, I mischaracterized it as yet another of those Hellboy things and didn't pay much attention.

Well, as I recently found out, I was wrong. Bowling with Corpses is, in fact, the start of a whole new shared universe: the Lands Unknown. So, far Mignola has been primary creator on two of graphic novels: the aforementioned title and Uri Tupka and the Gods with a sequel to that one, Uri Tupka and the Devils coming in November. Ben Stenbeck has contributed the two-issue series, Lands Unknown: The Skinless Man. I've read all of these available now, but I'm going to focus the rest of my discussion here on Mignola's two graphic novels, as they are the most unified in scope and tone (though that's no slight on The Skinless Man).

Found this on Reddit where someone had put the locations mentioned on the map

The Lands Unknown is a fantasy world with a feel in some respects similar to Dunsany's imagined East or Lovecraft's Dreamlands, but less Orientalist and more Middle and Eastern Europe and West Asian than those.  It's a polytheistic world where the gods have (perhaps) left, but the Devil is still around. The stories are inspired by folktales and legends from a number of lands. In the anthology, Bowling with Corpses, one of the tales seems pretty clearly derived from a tale in Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio. This serves to enhance the folkloric effect that Mignola and crew seem to be going for.

Uri Tupka and the Gods is about a theologian, branded a heretic, who sets out to find the gods. Along the way, he encounters strange and deadly things, including the interference of the Devil. The best I can describe it in high concept is sort of Dreamquest of Unknown Kadath meets Viy.

I liked both of these quite a bit. It's good to see Mignola back doing art again. I'm looking forward to next installment of Uri Tupka's travels.

The Crisis Companion

 

Recently, TwoMorrows released The Crisis Companion by Kevin Miller. This is an in-depth look at Crisis on Infinite Earths, its antecedents, its concept, how it plays out issue by issue, and its legacy. Given my ongoing reread of the period of Crisis's publication on my other blog, I was very interested in getting this as soon as I could.

I haven't had a chance to read it in depth yet, but overall, I'd say it looks quite good. At 250 pages there is a lot of detail, and just from browsing it, I've already learned interesting details like how the decision to kill Supergirl was made.

I enjoyed Miller's speculation on how elements of the Crisis story may be metatextual commentary on Wolfman's feelings about writing it. This sort of literary theorizing I liked a lot. I was less pleased with his swipe at the "overly long" "Trial of the Flash" arc wherein he suggests it is the cause "in no small part" of Flash's decline in sales since its inception in 1959. I share his opinion that "Trial" is overly long, but Miller provides absolutely no evidence that sales of Flash declined more precipitously in the years between April of 1983 and June of 1985.  A cursory search online suggests that in fact its sales declined by a greater amount between 1980 and 1982 than 1983 to 1984.  Regardless, absent evidence I'm forced to conclude that either Miller was making a joke that just appears as a statement of fact or he's just being slack about providing the evidence for his claims.

This issue aside and even with a limited read, I think it's a fascinating work and worth adding to your collection if you are a DC or 80s comics history fan.

DC Omnibuses in 2027

Last week, DC dropped their omnibus release slate for the first half of 2027 and there is a lot of good stuff, or at least stuff I'm interested in.

Biggest for me is Suicide Squad by John Ostrander Vol. 3 (June 8). While the best of Ostrander's Suicide Squad material is probably in the earlier volumes, this was series I followed from the beginning, and I've been looking forward to having it all in omnibus format for some time.

After that one, I'm not sure what would be next on my list, but the contenders for that spot definitely include The Green Lantern by Grant Morrison and Liam Sharp Omnibus (May 11), Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld (May 18), and Jonah Hex by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray Omnibus Vol. 1 (June 8). Probably the fact that we're actually getting an Amethyst omnibus has me most excited for that one, but the actual content of Green Lantern and Jonah Hex I am more looking forward to revisiting.

The third tier for me but still likely buys are Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight Omnibus Vol. 1 (June 1), Wonder Woman: The Bronze Age Omnibus Vol. 1 (March 2), and Batman by Doug Moench Omnibus Vol. 1 (April 13).

Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026)

 I caught Spider-Man: Brand New Day last weekend. It's of course the 4 in the joint Sony/Cinematic Marvel Universe Spider-Man series, following up on No Way Home's ending that had everyone forgetting Peter Parker thanks to a spell by Doctor Strange. 

Without going into explicit spoilers, I will say that despite the title reference to more modern Spider-Man comics, it made me think of Bronze Age Spidey comics as we have this happen:

And we get a subplot that may have been loosely inspired by this infamous arc:

Anyway, I enjoyed the film. I feel like it's one of the best of recent Marvel efforts, though that's perhaps damning with faint praise. In general, I think this Spider-Man series in one of the strongest of the CMU, even if it perhaps doesn't include any of the very the best films of the franchise.

My only quibble with it is in regard to the initial portrayal of Sadie Sink's mystery character--but I can't say more on that without spoiling the reveal.

Film Flashback: Dragon Inn (1967)

During a Criterion sale earlier this summer, I picked up Dragon Inn, a 1967 Taiwanese wuxia film directed by King Hu. I had seen Hu's Come Drink with Me (1966) from Shaw Brothers Studio and liked it so I decided to give this one a try. 

The titular Dragon Gate Inn is in sparse populated border area in northwest 15th-century China. There, three martial artists become involved in a plot by the power-hungry eunuch, Cao Shaoqin, and his ruthless Eastern Depot agents to assassinate the exiled family of a minister who was framed for treason and executed.

Hu's desert setting, design of the inn, and framing of the landscape recall Hollywood Westerns and perhaps Italian ones. His approach to fight choreography and fight scenes are swift and close quarters, at least until the final battle, more like Japanese chanbara films of the era than the wirework and dance like choreography of a lot of wuxia.

The toning of down of some (some!) of the eccentricities of the wuxia genre, and the Western style setup of a group of competent strangers defending an isolated location against the badguys makes this a good "gateway" wuxia to show someone new to the genre.